At midpoint of season, BCC readies for Saints

Jayhawk West

The first half of the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference Western Division basketball season has been completed.The Barton Lady Cougars are 13-9 overall, 3-5 in the West, in which they are tied for fifth place in the conference standings.Barton travels to Liberal to challenge Seward County on Saturday, which beat the Lady Cougars 75-57 on Jan. 4, something that Barton head coach Darin Spence says he wants to motivate his team.“I would hope so,” Barton head coach Darin Spence said of his team’s motivation going into Saturday’s game, which starts at 6 p.m., “but we get everybody after Hutch beats them up. We’re walking into that. They’re going to be motivated, too.”Seward (18-3, 7-1) lost to second-ranked Hutchinson 80-53 on Wednesday, while Barton lost to Cloud County 61-57.The Lady Saints are led by Ashlynn Knoll, who averages 14.3 points and 7.1 rebounds.Barton is led by sophomore Dionne Harris, who averages 13.7 points and 7.5 rebounds per game. Harris scored 21 points, including 14 in the second half, during the loss at Concordia.“She’s done that a lot and the biggest reason is not being focused enough and getting early fouls,” Spence said of Harris having a big second half. “We played her off the bench, hoping that letting the game get under way would help her focus a little bit, but she got a couple of early fouls again.“When the day comes when she puts in two good halves, look out.”Spence said that he wants his team to compete the way they did against Cloud County.“There have been some bright spots this season,” he said. “Those spots come around when we’ve competed like that, and it is a maturity factor whether we play like that or not.“When we show up and compete, we can play with anybody.”